WoW – More fun together!

I’m Not a Lone Hero

So I’ve read some posts, mostly at Righteous Orbs and Pink Pigtail Inn, discussing whether Cataclysm is too linear or not. That’s not really what I want to talk about – well, it is, but I’m going to start by saying yes, the game is currently very linear, you don’t have a lot of real choice, and I can see that replayability may be low. A lot of people are complaining about the cut scenes which frankly I’m loving. I’m not totally sure what’s causing the difference there.

Basically the discussion comes down to, can our games be epic, still feel like you have freedom, and be an MMO all at the same time? Frankly I don’t see how they can, not with current technology.

Take “open” – the idea that you can go anywhere and do anything. First off that’s a myth. Even the most open game ever invented has to have some rules, or it’s not a game. The question is where the rules come from. In a computer game, we the players can’t just make up the rules, because most of the rules are hard coded in by the game itself. You can’t climb up walls without special tools, you can’t teleport instantly except under defined circumstances.

The most open MMO I’ve played is EVE Online, a space game where you fly your starship through a huge galaxy of systems. You can mine ore, trade, build things, fight…. there’s a lot of options, and most of the content is therefore player created. But it still has rules. Some of them are built by the game: if you gank someone in high sec space, you’ll get creamed by the guards. Some of them are player enforced: if you’re in low-security space and don’t belong to the group that controls it, you’ll probably get blown up. But the rules still exist.

What does not exist is a story as such. There are stories in Eve, but they are mostly player created: they usually involve someone swindling other people out of in game currency. Or blowing up a battle fleet. You have exactly as much influence on the universe as one person with a little set of space ships should have; not much.

Then we have games where you are the Hero, the Destined One, the Savior. These are usually single-player games. I played Dragon Age recently, which is a great example of a very “open” feel that isn’t, really. Yes, the choices you make matter. No, they do not actually change the outcome of the game. The way to win the game is to defeat the evil. You can’t negotiate a peace treaty, or convince the people to flee somewhere else. The story is planned out just as heavily as WoW’s stories: it just has a few more branches before you get down to the end. It does, however, feel more open.

It can do that because it is a single player game. In WoW, if the events we are witness to are meaningful, they have to happen for everyone. The Battle for the Undercity took place, whether your character was there or not. If you were there, you were part of the force that retook it. Maybe when you did it, it looked like it was just you and a NPC hero or two, but in “reality” there were hundreds and thousands of soldiers and heros taking part.

As you are questing along in Cataclysm, you aren’t actually the sole lone hero convincing the Stonemother to help restore the Pillar of Earth; you are representative of the force that is actually doing the task. Imagine hundreds of you helping the locals out with their problems. Just because you can’t see everyone else doesn’t mean they aren’t there. It’s too bad there isn’t a nice visual way to show this. I think it would help a lot with peoples’ feelings of “no choices”. Because you don’t actually have a choice. You signed up to help save the world and despite what Generic Epic Fantasy Novel says, that usually means you do what your commanding officer says and hope not to win too many medals.

I think Blizzard did a great job of letting us feel like what we did actually mattered. Sure it’s a bit confining to have to do every quest in order, but honestly they’ve improved the quests so much I’m not dreading it as I level alts. And heck, if I do, I can just go level a different way. There’s plenty of options out there.

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9 Responses

I generally don’t think about it in that way… not having a choice. I think really, that you do have more than just a few choices. True, the game has become very linear, but still retains several paths from which a player can choose. Yes, if you’re questing, you have to choose Vashj’ir or Hyjal, and within each of those paths, there are not very many alternative paths, but there are still other options in the game. Case in point, Elgar, who chose to level as much as possible through archeology. And I’m sure others have done the same. I’ve even heard of a group of players who are attempting the challenge of levelling to 85 in wrath content complete with the xp nerf that comes with it… Now that truly sounds like a challenge. And can it even mathematically be done? Or you could level solely through battlegrounds and pvp if that is your desire.

I try just to lose myself in the moment of the gameplay. It is afterall a roleplaying game. When I’m playing Gromdred, I’m a paladin slashing my way to the “holy grail” as it were. I don’t care that the quests given to me are designed to take me to a specific place. I care only that someone has asked me to undertake a given quest, and it’s my sworn duty to complete it. When I’m playing, I don’t look straight to the end, I just look at what I have to do now.

It’s all about how you look at it I guess. But I don’t feel pushed in one direction or another. At anytime, I can break from the path and do something totally different for awhile. So I don’t see any issues there. If I thought I had no choices at all, I’d probably be looking for another game.

To be fair, Elgar just wanted to reach maximum archaeology before questing, I wasn’t actually expecting to get any XP from it, that’s really been just a bonus, but still it’s the same.

I did comment on this over Vent a couple weeks back, that though I love how the lower level questlines are very linear, telling you where to go and what to do, I did say that before I could basically run all over and quest anywhere, that’s not the case. So I can understand how if you roll a dwarf paladin, then later a dwarf shaman, they might follow the same path to 60 at least.

I’m not saying it’s better or worse, but as it is now, I feel there will still be plenty to do by the time I hit 85.

I agree that I both liked it, and worry somewhat about doing them again. Although I think the stories were well done enough that doing them again in a month might just allow the story to get better. And the zones were very fast. this was only 5 levels, not 10 like we usually have. It’s quite possible that the next 5 levels could add some more flavor and flexibility to each zone, instead of creating brand new zones.

I also really liked the cut scenes. They are very short, I don’t get why people don’t like them. I would imagine most complainers are those that play the game without even looking at the screen. It’s all about speed and numbers flying around and rush to the end. The graphics (much less the quest text) mean very little to them, and having to stop for a cut scene just irritates them.

I think the cut scenes are directly related to the feeling of linearity and either help or hinder it.

For example, there are a couple of cut scenes in Uldum where you lose control of your character and stupid stuff happens or you get randomly moved around. These cut scenes are just a way of forcing you to see or do what needs to happen next for the quest.

In contrast in Vashj’ir and Twilight Highlands the cut scenes are showing what the bad guys or the uber NPC good guys are doing. I like how these cut scenes work because you see what they do and then you get to react to it, usually via a quest.

It really boils down to allowing you to react and act as you choose. A cut scene followed by a quest to go help is choice. A cut scene where you watch yourself do something totally out of character is on rails, icky stupid rails.

The choice of now versus vanilla was ‘open’ (it wasn’t) feel with you never doing anything that MEANS anything versus now you get more of an ‘on rails’ feeling that has you jumping from one epic tail to the next. I love it!
The choice of path is what you make when you pick which zone you are going to level in. Or Which arc you start. If you never start Harrison Jones in that first chamber in Uldum then you could just skip that whole plotline. Of course you would be missing out on 2/5 of the exp in the zone. But hey, at least you have the choice, right?

So I am half way through FF-13 on the PS3. I actually at one point a week or so before Cata had the choice of playing the revamped old world WOW or playing FF-13. I was in the mood for cool plot. I got on FF-13 and after 20 minutes of grinding pointless battles that advanced the plot but a fraction of a nanometer I gave up and got on WOW. WOW now has more interesting plotslines and stories than single player games.